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Kurtley Beale had better watch his step, or flush a stellar Wallaby career down the toilet.

The latest incident in Durban, forcing Rebels management to send Beale home with Cooper Vuna for fighting each other following a drinking session after the 64-7 flogging by the Sharks, is symptomatic of Beale forgetting his St Joseph’s College doctrine and philosophy of rugby.

Both benchmarks were set by the incredible Brother Henry, a schoolboy coaching legend. He was both a gentleman, and a gentle man.

But one helluva rugby coach.

Between 1923 and 1953, excluding World War II, Brother Henry won 18 GPS first XV and 15 second XV premierships, coaching both sides together.

His doctrine – possession, position, and pace.

His philosophy – play hard, play fair.

Beale is not doing either too well at the moment, and it was much the same story in his time with the Waratahs.

Brother Henry died in 1970, aged 93, but he would have loved to have seen the spindly, head-geared Kurtley Beale dominate GPS rugby in the fly-half slot from 2004 to 2006.

Beale was his ultimate – possession, position, and pace.

Joeys won the premiership all three years on the back of Beale’s sheer brilliance in attack.

The first time I saw Beale he reminded me instantly of Mark Ella at Matraville High 30 years earlier.

The same instinctive, intuitive, ability to find holes that weren’t apparent to the naked eye.

And suddenly Ella and Beale were in the clear. Uncanny.

Now Beale’s at the crossroads. Ella never reached that point, he was never a problem. Nature’s gentleman.

But Beale is just proving if you forget where you came from, you are lost.

Beale is lost. Joeys has produced a long line of Wallabies, far more than any other school in Australia. Little wonder.

Since 1903, Joeys has won 54 first XV premierships. Next best in Kings with 27. Between them, their combined 81 premierships makes a huge hole in 110 years of GPS rugby.

But Joeys can thank Brother Henry for his doctrine and philosophy that still holds good today in the hallowed halls of Hunters Hill.

Remember those days Kurtley, and pull your head in. You are too good a bloke, and too good a Wallaby, to let these recurring brain explosions ruin your life.

The Crowd Says (190) | Page 1 of Comments

And not only Wallabies David, Joeys also produces league players, I have a cousin who went there who had a long league career. Ben Kennedy is another.
I doubt though that Kurtley thinks too much about Brother Henry.
The drinking culture in rugby needs assessment. The trouble is that some people are not able to balance their behaviour after a drink. Which means trouble for all.
But as a junior coach I am interested in this philosophy of rugby. What exactly did Brother Henry mean by ‘position’ in his motto?

Billy Bob, Brother Henry coached a very different game of rugby to what is played today. There were no forwards swanning in the backline, every player under Brother Henry knew exactly where he was supposed to be in every sector of the field – forwards did forwards work, and left the backs to do theirs. Sounds regimented, but it was a winning formula. And let’s not forget Stan McCabe, Joeys cricket legend.

Joeys also produces plenty of old boys who disgrace themselves every year at GPS matches (esp Joeys vs Ignatius) with excessive drinking, violent behaviour etc. Kutley’s behaviour is pretty mild compared to the average Joey’s knob.

Joeys also has the luxury of being a school with alot of money and they give scholarships to the most promising kids in the state. If you take most of the talent pool then it is no wonder you are producing stars and winning GPS matches. Most other schools can’t afford to throw that same amount of money in.

Actually Joeys offers very little scholarships, especially in comparison to other private schools. Only one boy in the current first XV is on a scholarship, for mathematics. Beale was on a scholarship from year 7 as part of the Aboriginal program, of which there are many other boys who don’t play rugby. Please don’t just throw out accusations like that which are unfounded. I totally agree that the practice of offering scholarships to promising athletes dilutes the talent pool in NSW, but as far as I can see, Joeys doesn’t take part in it.

I dont think where he played football as a school kid has much to do with anything.
He got pissed and punched a team mate.
I think Beale should be more concerned about himself than Brother Henry.
Beale needs to be more worried about where hes heading, not where hes been or where he played school rugby.

You miss the point Hightackle. Kurtley learned his rugby the Brother Henry way, it’s been passed down through the ages. and the lessons learned as a person. That’s what Kurtley has forgotten. I can’t think of one other Joeys Wallaby who has forgotten those personal lessons.

Was Brother Henry the best rugby player thats ever lived and known as such all over the planet or are you being a little silly.
I would suggest that 99% of all pro rugby players in the world have never heard of Brother Henry but 99% of all pro cricketers have prolly heard of Bradman.

Ok Brendo sorry mate, i thought it was 99 I watched the match on ABC. Great days, good memories you had watching there and being at TKS then. Love it if GPS could get like those halcyon days of the 1990’s, good times, good memories.

Everybody respects Mark Ella, but Kurtley has probably had more more contact with Mark’s twin Glen. How far they have gone on talks, I’m not privy to. But any contact with an Ella, including younger brother Gary, can only be a major plus.

yeah beale. remember where u came from before u got that scholarship and started at a private school. remember the poor downtrodden neighbourhood in mt druitt you were taken from and had your feet set on the priviledged path to make yourself a better person and given the opportunity to get paid for doing something u love.
remember how lucky u are kurtley .

Exactly right mania. When I read the headline, that is what I thought the article was about.

I think one problem with guys like Kurtley is they’ve never really EARNED the money they have. They haven’t had to go to uni and work part time, or start an apprenticeship and study part time. They’ve never had to really work for their money, the way the rest of us do. Start at the bottom, on little money, and work their way up.

This means they don’t really appreciate what they have. If they’d had to pay rent, pay their groceries, and struggle and make financial sacrifices, they’d appreciate what they have and not carry on like complete pork chops.

All they do is train and play a sport they love. Good luck to them, but someone needs to keep their feet on the ground, big time. Some have kept a balanced view on life, but too many are lost.

Kurtley needs a dad or other role model to help him invest his money, set himself up for the future, give him basically a stipend to live off, plan his future career by studying, and involve him in charity work, to show how lucky he really is. Sacrifice part of your weekly salary to those who need it more. Surely there’s a charity that means a lot to Kurtley.

I don’t know Kurtley personally. But I’d wager he lacks a positive and helpful role model.

jameswm – his family/parents had to struggle. you’d think that that would be enough of a lesson and reminder of where he came from and what he left behind.
agree fully with you jameswm .I don’t know Kurtley personallyeither but it seems he’s forgotten and needs a role model figure he can turn to when he needs some perspective and advice.

thanx kippa. i reckon beale needs help. he’s struggling with something and the alcohol episodes is just a symptom. at the minimum he’s an alky and needs the correct professional help. turning on the guy and bludgeoning him with statements like “pull your head in” is overly simplistic.

March 26th 2013 @ 8:15am Train Without A Station
said
| March 26th 2013 @ 8:15am | Report comment

He’s obviously struggling with the fact he appears to be a knob of a bloke. Don’t make excuses for him. Plenty of other player ar able to manage their injuries well (e.g. James Horwill, and even Quade Cooper during his knee rehab) without getting on the sauce and belting people. Is this not the 3rd time Kurtley has got on the drink whilst injured and been involved in an assault? Christ, the court case from him doing it last year is still in mediation isn’t it?

Train Without A Station – is that how u would treat a loved one if they came to yu with a drinking problem? the 3 amigo’s are definately knobs but that doesnt mean that they’re immune to problems that everyone else gets help with. cant believe that the issue of beales alcoholism hasnt been addessed before and for the sake fo the WB’s it keeps getting swept under the rug.
SirGrahamHenry hit it on the head when he said that better people make better allBlacks. beale needs help to get better.

quite the judgmental expert aren’t you Mania? An amazing ability you seem to have, to be able to diagnose people as alcoholics, knobs etc from afar? It’s quite selfish of you just to sit behind behind your keyboard and not share such ability with the community. Just think how much good you could do.

johnson – definiition of an alky is someone who drinks once a week all the time. beale gets into fights when he’s drinking. its pretty obvious isnt it? this is solely based on my experience and i’m not as expert as dirk makes out.
dirk i didnt call beale a knob first, i was paraphrasing. u do realise that this is an opinion site or are u lost? would love to see what your super powers are.

I don’t think you know what your talking about Mania. I think you should take what you said back. An Alcoholic by the Alcoholics annonomous definition is someone who can’t have one drink. I don’t think you know that about Kurtley. I don’t think anywhere the definition of an alcoholic has anything to do with fighting.

I would say in my non expert opinion that he is a binge drinker with anger issues and a huge ego that needs popping.
Claiming alcoholism is a cowards way out of a messy situation that he created all by himself

Binge drinking is still a form of alcoholism, feel free to look it up. Mania is on the money and I don’t see it as giving Beale an excuse to hide behind. He still needs to choose to address and deal with the issue. If he doesn’t, alcohol problem or not, he will be an even bigger know.

The guy needs his attitude checked first and foremost, what I see is people blaming the booze for his immaturity and poor decisions get a grip.
In my teens and throughout my 20s I hit the booze hard as did most of my peers and teammates funnily none of us went around thumping people and simply put being a right twat then claiming alcoholism.
No we grew up and took responsibility for our actions instead of blaming the grog!!!

In this day and age it’s all to easy to claim illness or blame others for ones problems and the amount of excuses makers for his behaviour allow this to happen

KB should be sent back to club rugby for a couple of weeks and not be considered for Rebels selection. Furthermore Robbie should forget KB for the international season. He needs to send a clear message that this type of behaviour won’t be tolerated.

If he is back for the Rebels In 2/3 weeks and ends up in the British Lions series then that’s a joke.